A growing trend in communications systems is the continuous increase of feature rich content desired by consumers. For example, consumers rely on communication systems to deliver services that transmit a large quantity of data in addition to traditional voice communication. The data can include complex graphics or images, audio, video, etc. As the number of users and services increase, it becomes necessary for service providers to upgrade infrastructure and services to accommodate user demands.
Communication systems utilized by such service providers must be capable of operating at high speeds while also having sufficient capacity to carry the quantity of data necessary to deliver desired services. Such systems rely on proper timing and synchronization to ensure information is properly transmitted and received. Improper synchronization can result in various errors, delays, and/or possibly complete loss of information, ultimately resulting in user dissatisfaction. For example, excessive delays in data delivery can result in increased wait time for users to receive desired content because of loss and subsequent retransmission of data. This can increase costs for users who subscribe to, for example, services based on time and/or data quantity. Such delays can manifest as dropped voice calls or the inability to access data services. Furthermore, a large number of users may contact the service provider to report the problem, thus requiring the presence of sufficient customer service representatives.
When multiple systems operating on different timing clocks are required to communicate with each other, it can be difficult to obtain proper timing. For example, communication may be required between two systems that are proprietary to different service providers. While each system may individually function within the constraints of a particular protocol such as, for example, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), there may sometimes be instances where timing variations between the two systems exceed the protocol constraints. It is therefore desirable to properly synchronize communication between systems which operate on different timing clocks.